Old Mole Variety Hour

The Old Mole burrows down to the roots of the great issues of our time – the struggles of ordinary people for democratic and sustainable ways of life. The Mole goes where corporate media fear to tread, supporting grassroots challenges to top-down authority and giving voice to movements that shake the foundations of an unjust society. The Moles' perspective is democratic, broadly socialist, and feminist. (We count Karl Marx as a friend).

Clayton Morgareidge hosts the show and we hear radical takes on how to run elections, a venue for leftist comedy at the Red & Black Cafe, the neoliberal soul, Richard Sherman's post-game rant, and class war and the security state.

Audio

Special guest Bill McKibben talks with Bill Resnick about how we are going to have to live on this rapidly changing planet. Tom Becker, host for today's show, reads an op-ed urging an end to the war on marijuana. And our Movie Moles take on the controversial Swedish film Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

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To hear the whole show, use the play button below. To hear individual pieces and find more information, follow these links:

Well-known author and global warming activist, Bill McKibben, founder of the 350 movement, sits down with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick for this special 30-minute interview about the state of the Earth and what humanity (that is, you and me) will have to do to survive on a changed planet. McKibben is the author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, which Resnick calls "a powerful, stunning book with staggering implications."

April 20, or 4/20, is the day when protests against punitive marijuana laws will take place around the country. Bill Piper is director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance Network, and makes this plea to everyone, smoker or not, to get involved in repealing these laws. Tom Becker reads from this piece which can be found here.

Our Movie Moles Jan Haaken and Wendy Webb discuss the sexual politics of the new Swedish film Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The film deals with sexual violence, revenge, and the decadence of upper-class Swedish society.

Physicist and environmental activist Chris Williams talks with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick about the disasters that await our planet if nothing is done to stop global warming. He also has good news: the technology already exists to solve the problem. Williams is the author of a forthcoming book,Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis.

Jobs are not coming back with the so-called "economic recovery" -- and will be a long time coming. If there's not encough work, why not spread it around? Clayton Morgareidge looks at some ways to do this.

Jeanette Walls' novel Half-Broke Horses is the story of a frontier woman, “a spirited heroine, fiercely outspoken against hypocrisy and prejudice, a rodeo rider and fearless breaker of horses, and a ruthless poker player.” Larry Bowlden reviews this "true-life novel". You can read more of Larry's reviews here.

What undermines academic freedom and intellectual inquiry in the University today and what can be done to defend them? Professor Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, talks with the Old Mole's Laurie Mercier about untenured faculty afraid for their jobs and neo-liberal demands that education serve the economy. Nelson has laid out these concerns in a new book, No University is an Island.

Psychologist, Film Maker, and Old Mole Jan Haaken talks with Tom Becker about the Oregon State Hospital where she has been making a film, "Guilty Except for Insanity". How has the institution changed since "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed there? Who winds up confined there, what is its mission, and what needs to be done to make it better?

For information on how you can see the movie this Sunday, April 11, in Salem, click here.

It's convenient to have the Old Mole audio files available.
Even more useful for some of us would be transcripts of the commentaries (Clayton Morgareidge). Written material allows a person a chance to review, consider, digest and refer to mentioned references & thinkers. The "Well Read Red" commentary from 4 Aug 08 is a good example of a piece I'd like to read at my own pace.